1.“Computers are about to take people to places they have
never been able to visit before.”
Explain the statement basing on the essay ‘Fancy a
fantasy Spacecraft?’
-> In today’s scenario artificial worlds are being built up in a
computer memory so that people can walk through at will, look
around, and even touch objects. The system is called virtual reality.
Virtual reality systems are being developed throughout the world for
a range of uses including enabling people to walk ‘inside’ nuclearpower stations,while controlling a robot that actually goes into an
area in which no human could live etc. Actually, computers are
about to give experience of different unvisitable places to the
human beings. For example, In Britain, Robert Stone, of the
National Advanced Robotics Research Centre at Manchester
University, is developing systems that could put men on Mars
without shooting them into space and could plunge divers under the
North Sea without taking them out of the office.. Various institutions
around the world are investing in creating the virtual reality system
so that people can experience things that they have never been
able to experience in their lifetime.
2.
Write a short description of the VR visual system.
-> Virtual Reality (VR) is the use of computer technology to
create a simulated environment. Unlike traditional user interfaces,
VR places the user inside an experience. Instead of viewing a
screen in front of them, users are immersed and able to interact
with 3D worlds. By simulating as many senses as possible, such as
vision, hearing, touch, even smell, the computer is transformed into
a gatekeeper to this artificial world. The only limits to near-real VR
experiences are the availability of content and cheap computing
power.A virtual reality system consists of helmet with a colour
display in front of each eye, and wide-angle lenses to cover the
entire field of view and give a stereoscopic effect. The helmet
contains sensors,like compasses to record where it is pointing.
3. Do you think the use of virtual reality in computer war
games is going to affect young people’s attitude to
violence?
-> Yes, I think the use of virtual reality in computer war games
certainly can affect young people’s attitude to violence. Virtual
reality gives the feeling of realness and positive attitude towards the
violence. Virtual reality, with the sense of presence it provides, has
the potential to completely change the attitude – bringing potency
to the smallest disturbances and setting the fundamental conflict
between button mashing and the basic physicality of violent acts.“In
a normal game there’s an enormous amount of dissonance(lack of
harmony) between what’s happening on screen and what the
gamer is experiencing. For example, The idea of putting a bullet in
the back of somebody’s head in VR – I think that’s something that’s
far less entertaining and induces much more of an emotional
reaction. Young people might think some kind of violence is normal
in the outer world. They may try to do the same thing in reality that
they have done inside VR. VR can induce such emotion in young
people.
4. Discuss the problems and consequences of hand
input devices.
-> The current hand input devices suffer from the same delays
that plague the head mount display systems, but the user's overcompensation is even more noticeable. Because there is typically
some interaction with the hand and other objects, absolute position
control is much more important here than it would be with head
positioning, where relative motion is usually sufficient.These
devices are also extremely limited in their ability to generate any
kind of tactile force or feedback to the user, as a concequence,
even to perform gross manipulation tasks with a DataGlove is
extremely difficult to without some kind of sensory feedback. Any
kind of fine manipulation is impossible. Though tactile feedback of
some kind may be possible, the quality of this will very likely be
extremely low and the cost extremely high for the foreseeable
future.